ObservationDeck: What ‘Smart’ Slime Molds Tell Us About Alien Intelligence

Let’s talk about slime molds.

Specifically, Physarum polycephalum, which despite being a big gooey bag of nuclei and protoplasm, may be intelligent — sort of. It doesn’t look like the kind of thinking that human beings do, but it still looks like thinking … or problem-solving, at least, when the slime mold builds a network of protoplasmic tendrils on a map that looks just like the Japanese rail system, or the Silk Road.

In this week’s episode of Observation Deck, I’m trying to figure out what kind of intelligence that is (if it’s any kind at all).

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